Marek's Unmarked Messer ** FINISHED **

[Marek]

Steve, building them side by side actually turns off any possible interest in the old mold. I worked on and off for some time on Thursday and today to bring airframes to some assembly 'milestone'. There is really no comparison between these two. Kudos to the inventor of superglue, otherwise I might have been trying to set some sane dihedral on the old mold's wing till morning. New one is definitely a well balanced and engineered kit, old one is the good example if you want to teach entropy at school. I will need some 'touch-up' filler on the E-4 mold, do not want to even start talking about the E-4/E-7. Pics will tell the tale
new mold




old mold



Now, both will come out OK, the difference will be... as minute as a whale. Of course, making any comparisons is not fair and so far I am really enjoying both kits.

[Ian]

The old kit has trim tabs on the wings. The new kit doesn't, even though they are shown on the painting instructions.
Score 1 for the old one!

[Marek]

OK, the Good, the Bad, the Ugly
the Good:
- New mold has canopy on, no dramas there, except I had to 'force-span' the front and back pieces, the middle one clicked into it OK-ish. Not the bad fit, not the best it the world




- Well known (not for me until tonight ) absolute garbage canopy of the old mold was 3 mm too low. Tried to remedy this with a styrene rods



- The UGLY: Somehow I managed to 'peel-off' the future layer and canopy fogged when being superglued. Had to take it out and will try to refuture it first and see if I can get away without sanding it. It worked once before. We'll see. I have no intention to spend any considerable time polishing short-shot, barely passable canopy so if more than half an hour is needed then I'll resort to stashing the kit away.



Next will be the preliminary fun - some putty touch-ups and rescribing of the new mold. Since the work needed for the old mold to be finished is considerably bigger, I'm moving the whole 'old world operation' to workbench and leave only the right kit here.

[ShaunW]

Hopefully you can sort out the old mould one without too much hassle Marek. The new tool is coming along nicely.

[Ian]

Sounds like you're not having a fun time with the old kit.

[Marek]

The old kit is having fun with me . I'll sort it the best I can but it won't win any continental contests....not that I was gonna have more than fun with it.

[Marek]

Out with the old, in with the new one!

Old mold is in a sleepmode, till I figure what to do with it. However, the more I was musing about markings, the more I liked the JG27 desert markings that came with the old kit. So having a attack of bold thoughts, I cut the sand filter from the old kit and attached it to the new one. I know there is already a Trop version of this kit on the market but it's gonna be a while till I source it and then there are countless other possibilities for E-7/Trop, including pod-racing on Vader's home world. The spinner assembly got its red-white treatment. I have not encountered any problem with this part of the kit. All clicked in as intended. Not to mention that I have actually cracked one blade while ... detaching it from the sprue. It was quickly repaired and no witnesses are there to tell the tale. I had to use filler in few places, nothing extraordinary and by the end of today's session Messier looked like that:


I'll coat it with RLM 76 plus white band soon.

[mightymikeD]

Good idea: leave no witnesses!

[ShaunW]

Great idea Marek and I'm looking forward to this one developing. The sprue gates on this kit are way too thick, there are some very nicely done fine parts but cutting them off the sprue can be a nightmare, as you found with your prop. Not good for younger or inexperienced modellers that's for sure.

[AndrewR]

Great idea Marek and I'm looking forward to this one developing. The sprue gates on this kit are way too thick, there are some very nicely done fine parts but cutting them off the sprue can be a nightmare, as you found with your prop. Not good for younger or inexperienced modellers that's for sure.

I agree with you there Shaun, they must be able to get the sprue gates thinner than this. I think a youngster would have trouble with these, particularly if they don't have a sharp knife. I usually let Graham use cutters to remove parts, but I'm leery of letting him loose with a craft knife. Mind he has now got his Cub Scout Knifecraft badge, so maybe I'm being too jumpy

The good news is that some of the molding is extremely well done. I'm impressed with how thin the undercarriage doors are on the Emil, a massive improvement.

Cheers

Andrew

[Dirkpitt289]

I like the idea of doing it in trop colors. I came close to doing that scheme myself.

[Marek]

No, definitely an idea of a young one running around with Xacto blade is not really the one I would like to entertain. I guess I am little overprotective myself. Now I have to find time to start spraying paint.

[malepo]

its coming along nicely

[ShaunW]

No, definitely an idea of a young one running around with Xacto blade is not really the one I would like to entertain.

Me neither. Those blades are not always safe in "adult" hands either - I managed to cut myself on two or three occasions last year and have come close with the sprues on this kit for parts where I couldn't get the sprue cutters in properly.

[mightymikeD]

No, definitely an idea of a young one running around with Xacto blade is not really the one I would like to entertain.

Me neither. Those blades are not always safe in "adult" hands either - I managed to cut myself on two or three occasions last year and have come close with the sprues on this kit for parts where I couldn't get the sprue cutters in properly.

FTFY:

"No, definitely an idea of a young one Shaun running around with Xacto blade is not really the one I would like to entertain"